


Sunrise

by WitchyBee



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Coffee, Existential Angst, Existential Crisis, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-02 23:08:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchyBee/pseuds/WitchyBee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil pretty much had two default moods, Carlos observed: boundless enthusiasm and maudlin existentialist. The latter was rare, evident only briefly in the small hours of morning before he had coffee, or sometimes late at night on the radio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> Just a drabble I came up with. I mean, we've all experienced little blips in our perception of reality, right? Maybe it's just me, but I thought it kind of fit for Cecil.

Carlos set his alarm clock every night more out of habit than practicality since time didn’t work in Night Vale. The sun rose whenever it damn well felt like it, or sometimes not at all; it hadn’t done so yet this morning. His alarm clock wasn’t here anyway, because this was Cecil’s apartment and Cecil’s bed. But then...where was Cecil? 

He didn’t have to search for very long, as the Faceless Old Woman had generously left a trail of flour on the ground to show him the way. It was kind of unnecessary, though, because it turned out Cecil was just standing on the balcony where Carlos could have easily found him.

Despite the sun’s stubborn refusal to rise, the desert air outside was pleasantly warm. Cecil did not seem to notice Carlos at all, even when the scientist called his name. He merely continued staring, eyes transfixed by the town spread out before him, the radio station’s blinking red light, the dark endless sky with its moon and stars and mysterious beautiful lights.

It was a truly remarkable phenomenon, the effect “the void” seemed to have on Night Vale residents. Carlos was not an astronomy expert by any means, but he had a basic knowledge of celestial bodies and how the universe functioned, or was supposed to, when this town didn’t prove to be an exception to every rule. He remembered an editorial on the radio once, in which Cecil had genuinely asked if anyone had ever done a study to ascertain what the moon even was.

Was the void to blame for Cecil's current state, or could it be something else?

“Cecil, I’m going to make some coffee. Do you want some?”

He nodded slightly.

In the kitchen, he discovered that the Faceless Old Woman was still one step ahead of him, and had already started the coffee brewing. She must have liked Cecil a great deal more than the aspect of herself “secretly” living in Carlos’ apartment, who regularly broke appliances and disassembled furniture in the name of modern art.

When it was finished, Carlos poured the coffee into Cecil’s favorite NVCR mug and brought it to him. He took the cup gratefully, sipping it fast, which appeared to revive him somehow.

“Paralyzing existential terror?” Carlos asked gently.

Cecil nodded, still drinking his coffee.

“What happened? What exactly did you...experience?” He couldn’t help it. Carlos was a scientist, and frankly, he was worried for his boyfriend. Carlos only knew a little bit about this kind of thing. He knew that it affected Cecil differently because his mother had been a seer, and that coffee usually helped.

“It’s like…” he began slowly, “It’s like you’re waking up from a dream, but just for a moment, and you’re suddenly hyper-aware of everything. You realize we’re all living on a tiny insignificant rock in a vast, infinite universe. You forget that the world around you is even real, any of this. You forget that you’re real; it’s like being on the outside of your life looking in. You have to remind yourself who you are. Sometimes that makes it worse, though, and it feels like the heavy weight of your existence is crushing you. But it only lasts a few seconds, really, a minute at most. Then I’m fine. Thanks for the coffee, dear sweet Carlos.”

“Actually, the Faceless Old Woman made it.” He didn’t really know why he said this. Carlos had no idea how to respond to what Cecil had just described. After all, his boyfriend had apparently visited European countries that Carlos was pretty sure didn’t exist, and the large gaps in his memory only seemed to bother him on rare occasions. Perhaps forgetting what was real sometimes was the least of Cecil’s problems. In fact, given this was Night Vale, it might not be a problem at all.

“Oh. Look, the sun’s coming up.”

They watched as the sun rose with extreme haste, as if making up for its tardiness. He wondered if the moon had lectured the sun about the importance of being punctual. And then, after realizing how absurd this thought was, Carlos decided he should get some coffee as well.


End file.
